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Just for a moment I want you to imagine that you are coming out of a very deep sleep. If you have ever had surgery try to remember the way you felt as you were trying to make sense of things as you awoke. As you imagine or remember this sensation do you find yourself wondering if it is morning or night? Are you trying to remember where you are? Do you have a startle reaction and think for a moment that you are late for work or forgot to pick up your children at school? I have had that upsetting feeling if I wake up in the middle of the night or even after a nap. Now imagine that same fog every moment of your life…….

So many care givers find themselves frustrated with an Alzheimer’s sufferer. They may say things like “He just doesn’t seem to care if I am with him or not” or “He doesn’t enjoy doing anything any more.” I know that it is so hard to accept the changes in your loved one and know that this is going to be your reality. If you can remind yourself that the behaviors are organic it will help. The plaque is building up and spreading over the surface of the brain just as a grassfire moves across a dry field. As it covers more areas your loved falls deeper into that fog. Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t show up like a broken one or a surgical scar but the effects are just as real.

When the things they say or do cause you to feel angry or sad do you best to remember that it is the disease…not your loved one. That’s when it is time for some care giver TLC.

Care giver burnout is a very real occurrence. If you are caring for someone you must include your own needs each day. Your health may decline at a faster rate than the person you are caring for if your dietary, emotional and physical needs are not met. Skipping your checkups with Dr.s is not an option.

You may be asking “How am I supposed to do all of this all by myself?” The answer is simple. You can’t do it all alone. The first step to healthy care giving is accepting the fact that you have limitations. Every human being does. You can only stay awake, maintain your health and keep up with the demands for a limited amount of time. When you reach your limit you may find yourself suffering from care giver burnout. You may have trouble concentrating, experience nervous tension, and you may find it difficult to fight off resentment toward your loved one or others in your family that you feel should be assisting you.

Reach out. Call upon your family, friends, church and community organizations. Your local hospitals will have information regarding community resources. This information can usually be found by contacting the Social Services Department. Another good resource is the Alzheimer’s Association. By taking care of your health you will, in turn be a better care giver.

Writers of medical advice–including columnists, insurance companies, governmental agencies, medical organizations, drug companies and even practitioners–are all biased. They always have agendas. They all choose to write about certain topics and not others. They make choices about what to include in their articles, what to leave out and how to state their cases. They’re all self-serving. They all have something to “sell,” even when there is not an immediate cash-return.

Does that mean you should throw up your hands, say the hell with it, and never read or listen to another medical message? I don’t think so, but in order to derive value from these messages, you sure as heck better understand the agendas of the people who created them. Or as the psychologists say, if you want to understand a behavior, you need to figure out what motivated it. Let’s examine some advice-givers and their biases.

What motivates health columnists? Well, how about their continued employment, the needs of their publisher-employers, and the needs of the companies the publishers wish to attract as advertisers? It’s not hard to imagine there are some subtle and not-so-subtle influences and incentives at play in framing the subject-matter and slant of the articles. Certainly, it’s hard to attract the business of potential advertisers when you have written devastating critiques of their products.

Yet don’t infer that you should ignore what the health columnists have to say. They provide a wonderful service in discussing health issues, the business of medicine and its practice. I personally enjoy reading the health columns of that great medical publication, The Wall Street Journal. In fact, I still distribute to my patients an excellent article about medication-overuse headaches that Tara Parker-Pope, one of their columnists, wrote years ago.

One of the odder chapters in the business of medicine is that certain insurance companies have positioned themselves as providers of health advice, particularly those companies paid by employers to manage their medication-benefit plans. I won’t waste the reader’s time in building a case that insurance companies have agendas and conflicts-of-interest in providing such advice. This should be self-evident.

Governmental agencies like the National Institutes of Health provide medical information which is generally reliable and useful, but influenced by the agency’s understandable needs for self-promotion and self-preservation. The same holds true for medical organizations like the American Academy of Neurology (to which I belong) and big group-practices like the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. The advice tendered by these medical organizations in their publications and web-pages is backed by their reputations, which they zealously protect. So you can be sure that the medical content is subjected to rigorous quality-control. And fortunately, although their messages are motivated by commercial needs, the linkages are obvious and easy for the consumer to take into account.

How about individual health practitioners? Giving advice is what they do for a living, so what’s the issue? Well, in the U.S., at least, there is a genuine “medical marketplace” where competition reigns supreme. So when you need help with your health, each practitioner (including me!) would like to make the short-list of advisers whose opinions you trust and value.

Let’s move on to the drug companies. In my opinion there is no medical information that is both as pervasive and biased as that created by drug companies. And in many cases the connection between the message and the drug company’s name has been obscured or hidden, so the consumer doesn’t even know to be wary.

I have written elsewhere about the comical turn of events in the “advice” that drug companies have provided to people with headaches. For many years the makers of sinus medications invested heavily in convincing people with headaches that most of them were due to sinus disease. But now that effective and lucrative drugs for migraine exist, companies are sinking even larger sums of money into the message that those headaches weren’t due to sinus conditions after all. Instead, they’ve been due to migraine. This vignette illustrates the hazard in allowing marketing departments of drug companies to diagnose one’s headaches.

Another hazard is in allowing drug companies to write the information-sheets that doctors hand patients at the ends of office visits. Every doctor gets buried in pamphlets that sales reps from drug companies leave at their offices. For years I actually looked at these things, trying to select the 30% that might be worth retaining and passing along to my patients. After a while, 30% seemed too optimistic, so I searched for the 20% that was worth keeping, and then the 10%…well, you get the idea. The pamphlets kept getting more biased and less useful. At one time the sales reps passed out some real gems that were genuinely helpful to patients and their families. But those days are gone.

When an individual walks into a hospital they expect to see a nurse, a doctor and possibly even a receptionist. The reason to even go to a hospital is to see a doctor who can hopefully cure whatever ailment an individual may have. While doctors and nurses are in the forefront diagnosing diseases and administering treatments, there are individuals behind the scene that do not first come to mind when thinking of a hospital. These individuals keep everything in the hospital running as smooth as possible and operate the administrative side. These professionals are trained in health care management and one of the easiest ways to do so is by receiving a health care management degree online.

The health care field is one of the fastest and most competitive career fields around. With that, it is important for professionals in the field to stay competitive. One way for individuals to stay competitive is to receive a health care management degree online. By receiving an online degree in health care management, professionals or aspiring professionals are given a better understanding of the health care profession as a whole and improve their assessment and management skills. By receiving an advanced degree, an individual will become more marketable in the job search field, as well as a better possibility for upward mobility in their current career. Receiving a degree online also affords professionals the comfort of completing course work at home, as well as the flexibility of maintaining a full-time job.

The goal of a health care management degree online program is to train professionals in the health care industry to make operations more efficient and competitive. Going through a degree program, individuals will be able to analyze health care as a whole and historical data important to the health care field. They will also receive skills in critical listening and reading, as well as being able to communicate effectively. While these skills may not appear to have anything to do with health care, they are essential to the field. It is important for health care management professionals to listen to the needs of the patients, as well as the doctors. They need to be effective problem-solvers and mediators as well.

The course work associated with a health care management degree online program reinforces these skills needed in the work place. Students are required to learn about the anatomy of the body so they can answer questions correctly and understand what a patients problem may be when they come into a hospital setting. Classes in human resources, management and accounting are also important to this particular career field because of the wide array of duties required by a health care management professional. Another crucial element to a degree in health care management is taking a class in law and ethics. Because of the fact that the average doctor is sued every five years, it is imperative that health care management professionals know the law and are well versed in ethics.

Health care management is a popular major because of all the career possibilities available to graduates. Everywhere you go there are hospitals and doctors offices in need of health care administrators. Upon graduation of a health care management degree online, individuals are able to work at hospitals, private physician practices, home health agencies, ambulatory care centers, and various other agencies and organizations that offer health care services. Whatever the health care service, professionals are needed to operate the service and make sure things run smoothly. Wherever there are doctors, administrators are sure to be there behind the scenes.

Although Texas ranks the highest among U.S. states in the number of uninsured residents, obtaining affordable Texas medical insurance is easier and more affordable than you think. Here are answers to five common questions about getting health insurance in Texas.

1. I’m young and healthy. Why should I spend money for medical insurance that I’ll never use?

Having insurance is like carrying an umbrella. You may not need it most of the time, but when there’s a torrential downpour you’ll be glad you have it. Even young and healthy people have accidents, seasonal illnesses, and sometimes tragic health issues. If you wind up having a serious medical condition, it can become very difficult to obtain Texas medical insurance, or your preexisting condition may be excluded from your coverage. In addition, you can get much lower premiums when you’re young and healthy, so health insurance provides excellent protection at very little cost.

2. Is there a benefit to using a health insurance agency, as opposed to getting quotes for policies on my own or going through a single agent?

A health insurance agency provides a number of benefits. First, they have established relationships with many, many insurance companies. This means that they have access to all of the best Texas medical insurance plans in the marketplace, while not having a bias toward any single insurer. This is in contrast to some individual agents, who work on behalf of one or two companies, and who will try and push you to sign up with their company. While you can research various plans on your own, a health insurance agency will do the legwork for you and present you will all available options, at no charge to you.

3. What’s the most important feature to consider when buying health insurance?

There are two important features that people often overlook: the lifetime maximum coverage and the maximum out-of-pocket expense. Although your more immediate concerns might be co-payments for doctors’ visits and prescription coverage, if you or a family member experiences a catastrophic illness, your overall coverage and out-of-pocket costs are much more crucial. Look for a policy that offers lifetime maximum coverage of $3 million or more, and a yearly out-of-pocket maximum in the $2,000 to $3,000 range.

4. Can I trust online comparisons for Texas health insurance?

Yes. The law requires that identical plans have identical pricing, regardless of whether you go directly through the insurer or use a health insurance agency. In other words, if you’re looking at the XYZ company’s Plan A, you will receive the same quote whether you get it online, place a phone call, or visit an insurance agency or company. Keep in mind though, that the price you pay may depend upon a number of variables, including your age, your gender, whether or not you smoke, and any pre-existing medical conditions that you may have. The final price is in large part determined by your medical history.

5. What’s the difference between an HMO and a PPO?

When it comes to Texas medical insurance, a health maintenance organization (HMO) requires that, for non-emergency services, you use their physicians and hospitals. A preferred provider organization (PPO) allows you to visit any health care provider, but gives you more benefits if you use health care professionals and services within their network.

It’s a trite but true refrain that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. For most of us, it’s been about 12 hours since our last meal and our bodies need a good refueling. Yet, statistics show that as many at 50% of us don’t eat breakfast.

Sad to say, none of those reasons are valid. There are many healthy breakfasts that can either be bought or made that are fast and even portable. There’s no law that says you have to eat breakfast foods for breakfast. You legitimately might not feel hungry in the morning, particularly if you aren’t accustomed to eating breakfast. But you should eat something, even if you make a fairly light choice, like fruit and yogurt. Trying to lose weight is the worst excuse of all. Study after study shows that people who skip breakfast end up eating more the rest of the day than people who eat a solid breakfast every morning.

So how do you get the magical mix of the right nutrients that will give you energy and send you healthfully into your day?

It’s not that hard, really. Spend a little bit of time thinking about what you like and then plan some healthy breakfasts. Here are some ideas to get you started:

* If you need something portable, the ever-popular smoothie is a good choice. Be careful when you purchase a smoothie at a shop, however, as some can have as many as 600 calories. You can purchase a good blender or smoothie maker to have at home and whip up your own smoothie in less time than it takes to stop at a smoothie store, and you’ll know exactly what’s in it.

* For an even faster breakfast, try making some breakfast burritos and keeping them in the freezer. You can use regular or whole-wheat tortillas, scrambled eggs (either whole, all whites, a mix, or an egg product), some veggies like peppers and onions, and soy sausage. These freeze beautifully. Pull one out, and while you’re pouring your coffee, it can be heating in the microwave. Add a banana or apple for on-the-go dining.

* Cereal is a fine breakfast, as long as it’s not the only thing you eat. Consider adding some banana or blueberries on top, or fixing it with soy milk for a healthy dairy addition. Otherwise, stick to skim milk.

* If you don’t like breakfast, consider making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat bread. Grab a banana on the way out the door. Have some leftover vegetarian pizza from dinner? That’s a fine breakfast, though you will want to add a glass of milk or some fruit to round it out.

* Trying to lose weight? Breakfast might be the easiest meal to fill up without using a lot of calories or fat. Have oatmeal with soy milk, or a high-fiber cold cereal. Consider a homemade version of a fast-food sandwich. You can fry up an egg, add a slice of Canadian bacon and put the two into a toasted English muffin for a 200-calorie, filling breakfast.

Fruits and vegetables have always been an important part to a healthy diet. Along with daily exercise and your body will reward you with great energy and radiating skin. This is no secret; it’s just plain fact.

Choosing the Proper Fruits

While some of us love our vegetables and fruits, some of us barely eat a handful a week. Eating the proper foods is a part of promoting good health. Learn a bit about your daily diet and you’ll be able to eat right even if you don’t consume the exact amount needed daily. The mangosteen is a fruit that is filled with all the vital vitamins and minerals required to provide that needed dosage for good health on a daily basis.

The Mangosteen Fruit

Grown in the tropical land of Southeast Asia several centuries ago, the mangosteen tree needs warm temperatures and large amounts of rain to grow. Nonetheless, its growth is very slow and it achieves its peak-season in about 10 years. By then, it starts to produce large quantities of mangosteen fruit yearly.

What Exactly are The Health Benefits of Mangosteen Juice?

The health benefits from mangosteen juice is faster absorption in the body instead of eating fresh or dried. The most significant health benefit from the mangosteen juice is the rich content of antioxidants in each fruit. Antioxidants are recognized for their ability to fight and delay the aging process, thus leaving us with healthier skin.

Drink mangosteen juice for your health benefits. These health benefits include a good daily dose of vitamins and minerals, such as Vitamin E, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B1, calcium, potassium, iron and fiber.

Just a Reminder

Although the health benefits from mangosteen juice are huge; it acts to compliment our immune system by assisting it to fight infections and other possible diseases. It does not cure any illnesses on its own. All fresh fruits and vegetables are good for our health and well-being.

Feeding our bodies with natural foods found in nature, with no preservatives or additives, is one of the best ways to ensure a long, healthy and happy life. Consume fresh fruits and vegetables as frequently as possible to sustain your health for the long haul.

Health is the biggest and most crucial asset of every living being. An unhealthy animal and individual can never truly experience any joy. It is the wealth of health that provides the requisite potential to topple over all odds and to move ahead with life. So such an essential part of a person’s life demands extra care and concern. An ideal way to secure an individual’s prized possession for him and for those who love him is a health insurance policy.

A health insurance policy is meant to financially assist a person in case there occurs a setback to his health. For instance he is afflicted by some grave disease, meets an accident, becomes handicapped etc. In order to provide complete service and for the all round development of the individual the health care system of America offers ample of options or different types of health insurance for its citizens. Some of these are explained below:

• Preferred Provider Organization or PPO is a discount form of health insurance policy. PPO has a complete network of health care providers from hospitals to doctors. If an individual has taken PPO policy and takes treatment from any of these assigned providers, the PPO covers his complete medical treatment. While if the person takes recourse to some other doctor or institution, he gets served at a reduced rate. PPO’s thus facilitate medical services at abridged rates.

• One immensely cheap form of health insurance is the catastrophic health insurance. This sort of policy is basically meant for the people who have the financial means to manage regular illnesses and hospitalizations. The deductibles i.e. the sum of money an individual for these policies are quite large for this policy. At times there are caps on the amount the policy will pay in case of illness.

• A Short term health insurance policy is akin to a life insurance policy in the sense that both can be adopted for a specific tenure. This policy covers catastrophic to comprehensive cases and excludes the situation of pregnancy and childbirth. Quite often it is hard to qualify for these policies as there are strict conditions or qualifying procedures. Moreover these policies may not cover any pre-existing medical conditions.

• HMOs or the Health Maintenance Organizations also offer health insurane t significantly lower premiums. But the disadvantage is that they confine the sources a person may seek in non-exigency situations. HMOs do not cover the precautionary measures such as immunization, mammograms and physicals. There are quite a few issues associated with the HMOs. For instance it is believed that doctors receive financial perks for deducting the cost of medical services to patients. One way to do this is to pay monthly fee to the doctor for each patient despite of delving in to the issues of what treatment the latter one needs.

• There are also full-service health insurances. The lucrative feature of these policies is that they cover all sort of illnesses, cover any medical treatment the patient takes regardless of the institution or doctor and the deductibles are at the discretion of the policyholder. He may pay a high or a low one.

• Medicare or Medicaid insurances are meant for the retired or the low-income individuals.

If counting sheep is not working for you, here are some facts you may want to sleep on-chronic sleep deprivation can do more than make you tired. It can significantly affect your health, safety, performance, and lifestyle.

Most people are surprised to learn that sleeping less than six or seven hours a night can increase their mortality risk more than smoking, high blood pressure or heart disease.

Losing as little as one and a half hours of sleep for just one night could result in a reduction of daytime alertness by as much as 32 percent. This loss can impair memory and the ability to think and process information effectively.

Decreased alertness can also affect your life by limiting your participation in activities that require sustained attention, such as reading a book or watching your favorite TV show. And the risk of receiving an occupational injury more than doubles when a person is sleepy.

Car accidents are another problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates conservatively that each year drowsy driving is responsible for at least 100,000 automobiles crashed, 71,000 injuries and 1,550 fatalities.

As many as 70 million Americans have sleep disturbances-which include taking a long time to get to sleep, sleeping less and waking up frequently.

Sleep disturbances may in fact be a symptom of a much larger problem, especially if they are associated with irritability and mood swings. Emotional stress, racing thoughts and restlessness can be signs of something more serious, such as bipolar disorder.

“If someone is experiencing restlessness and irritability, along with sadness or emotional ups and downs for more than two weeks,” said Dr. Ellen Frank, professor of psychiatry and psychology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, “they should seek medical attention from a specialist who is trained to diagnose or perhaps just rule out depression or bipolar disorder.”

The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) has launched a new Web site, www. sleeplessinamerica.org, which offers educational resources that provide screening for sleeplessness, information on when to see a doctor and a questionnaire to determine when sleeplessness might be symptomatic of a more serious illness. The Web site is also available in Spanish.

Some people ask themselves if it’s okay to engage in premarital sex and in their minds try to weigh its pros and cons. There are couples who engage in premarital sex way before they even get into high school. At the onset of puberty, kids begin to be curious about their sexuality. And without proper guidance, these kids explore and venture into the realm of the senses without much thought of the dire consequence of their impulsive actions. Come to think of it, teens are not the only ones guilty of such wanton behavior but even adults as well. Indeed, the world has shaped a permissive attitude towards premarital sex.
On the positive side of the scale, there is peer acceptance and the gratification of sexual desires. After all, the kind of message we receive in the media today, be it on TV or in the movies, is that “everyone is doing it.” But its downside carries the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancy, and the heavy weight of moral consequence such as guilt. Thus, morality plays a vital role in dealing with the issues about premarital sex. But for those couples who have learned to “wait”, the prospect of married life and eventually, raising their own family becomes a satisfying experience.
Parenthood is one of the noblest tasks a married couple has to take as they carry on with their relationship. Some who are not blessed to have their own children would even go to the extent of adopting someone else’s child just so they can experience parenthood.
In most countries, there is no limit as to the number of children couples can have as long as he can provide for their needs and welfare. However, due to economic considerations, many couples have decided to put a limit to the number of kids they want to raise, much to the consternation of the church. We all know that the church advocates procreation and is totally against family planning or birth control. Thus, we are faced with the dilemma of choosing between having a big and happy brood than a small but a well-planned family.
Family planning is not just to limit the number of kids a family but is also a means to improve the quality of life of each family member. It’s not just about birth control but laying a solid foundation for a better future.
The type of birth control you choose depends on your needs. Some people only need to prevent pregnancy. Modern couples try not to have babies in the first two years of marriage in order for them to enjoy each other as husband and wife. This will enable them to have strong bonding and prepares them for the coming of their future children. If and when they decide to have kids, they try to plan or limit the number and succession of their offspring. By doing so, they are able to manage and monitor the needs of their children in terms of their financial, emotional, and physical capabilities.
Other couples may also resort to contraceptives to protect themselves or their partners from diseases that can be passed on by having sex. These diseases are called sexually transmitted diseases (STDs): AIDS, chlamydia, herpes, genital warts, gonorrhea, and syphilis.
Statistics released by Planned Parenthood shows that birth control paved the way for improved family life: “The maternal death rate has fallen more than 60 percent. The infant death rate has declined by more than 70 percent. Birth control not only saves lives — it helps women and their families prevent poverty, plan their futures, and take charge of their destinies.”
To decide which method to use at this point in your life, talk with your family doctor about the pros and cons of each birth control option. Better yet, think before you do.

Most Americans are struggling to afford health insurance. In just the past few years, the cost of buying health insurance for your family has skyrocketed. I was talking with an insurance agent recently, who told me it’s not unusual at all for his clients to be paying $1,000 to $1,400 per month for their family to be covered.

I don’t know many people who can easily afford those kinds of monthly insurance payments. Most who are paying them are making major sacrifices in other areas. The vast majority of Americans put health coverage very high on their list of priorities, so the other things that get left behind might surprise you. No question, the quality of life is far lower for many people now that they pay so much to be insured.

Meanwhile, many employers are cutting back their employees’ insurance coverage. Professions that once paid all their employees’ health insurance premiums — like teachers and firefighters — are finding the employee footing the bill for larger and larger portions of their insurance.

How are people coping? Many Americans simply don’t have health insurance anymore. That’s a big problem not only for families, who often put off going to the doctor, but also for society in general. People who hesitate buying medicine or seeing a doctor often end up very sick in hospital emergency rooms.

Others are simply reducing the amount of health insurance they have. They pay a larger portion of their doctor visits and prescription medicine costs. If you are a young adult, it may not make a lot of sense to pay huge insurance premiums to be covered for major illnesses that you are very unlikely to experience.

There are a growing number of health insurance plans that let you pick and choose the areas of coverage you want to pay for. While this practice was prohibited in many states, more and more places are seeing the wisdom and necessity of this approach.

Even more pressing than the cost of health insurance is the cost of buying prescription medicines. Many people simply can’t afford the spiraling cost of the medicines they need. Others might insist, willingly lowering their standard of living just to afford overpriced medicine. The solution to this problem increasingly has nothing to do with insurance. Organizations use their large pool of members to negotiate big discounts on prescription drugs at thousands of chain and independent pharmacies nationwide. Typically you can save up to 60% off generic drugs and up to 15% off name-brand drugs.

This is a big advantage for the elderly, families, businesses, organizations, and anyone who wants to lower their cost of medicine. Additionally, some programs also cover medicine for your pets. If you often care for an ill animal, this can save you a lot of money over time.

Unlike insurance, discount drug programs are often very low cost or free. Pharmacies participate in the discount programs to encourage you to buy from them. It’s a win-win for both you and the medical industry.